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I know that sounds like a come on, but there appears to be about a half billion dollars worth of business out there for securing the bridges that connect Manhattan with the mainland.
But you better hurry if you want in on the deal:
Contractors have until 2 p.m. on Jan. 9 to express interest in carrying out the work. So far, 23 firms have done so, including Kane Security Screens of Braintree, Mass.; Siemens Government Services of Reston, Va.; and Integrated Security Solutions of Kalispell, Mont.
Just throw your name in the hat. Couldn't hurt, right?
An employee of the Corps Contracting Division told the Brooklyn Eagle Tuesday that solicitation number W912DS-09-S-0014 is a Ã¢â‚¬Å“sources soughtÃ¢â‚¬Â solicitation, Ã¢â‚¬Å“to determine how many qualified contractors are available to do the job.Ã¢â‚¬Â She noted that the plan is in the earliest stage of development, and the Corps has not yet issued a request for proposals or invitation for a bid.
According to the solicitation, the estimated cost of this work would be between $400 and $500 million.
One would think they'd publish this kind of "sources sought" call in a certain publication that does nothing but distribute information to security companies, but I suppose that would make too much sense.

The City of Chicago recently (I heard about a notice being posted on the city's website on Dec. 30) and quietly enacted some radical changes to their False Burglar Alarm program. These quiet and sudden changes have been meeting with some resistance.
Chuck Mishoulam, owner/president of Chicago-based Alert Protective Services, Inc., said the changes are not only sudden, but extreme. Ã¢â‚¬Å“ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s pretty radical Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ WeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re all a bit taken aback by it,Ã¢â‚¬Â Mishoulam said. Ã¢â‚¬Å“ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a big deal. People make mistakes, and come in and can create a false alarmÃ¢â‚¬â€an employee, an owner, or whatever the case might beÃ¢â‚¬â€and I think having the three free passes before was just a better way to do business Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ You know thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a human factor involved here. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not just an equipment thing Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ so people have to have the ability to have some wiggle room to make a mistake. So the three free ones gave people enough warning to know `IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve only got three of these things, so I should be careful.Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ But you hit somebody with a $100 fine and an administrative hearing and that all takes time for people.Ã¢â‚¬Â
This is one way to assure that people maintain and test their alarm system, I guess.

Hey, everyone, I'm back. I know how sorely you've missed me over these holiday weeks (as if any of you have been at your desks either - jeez, the industry's been a ghost town while I've been gone).
Anyway, I've been pounding the WWW looking for news and ran across this blog run by Data Systems Worldwide, a California company that's a Cisco silver-certified outfit doing everything from IT infrastructure to security. Like most blogs in the security industry, it doesn't contain a lot of posts, but check out the bit from October, which I hadn't seen before: First Casino in the World to Feature End to End Cisco Solution.
What's that mean?
Well, it's got "Cisco Physical Security, Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco Ethernet Slot Network featuring VSS, Cisco Wireless, and Cisco Security all under one roof!!!!" Clearly, it must be a big deal if it requires four exclamation points to tell you about it. It's just more proof that no matter how mediocre some might find Cisco's physical security products, Cisco simply has some hyper loyalists that are going to tack those products on to what they already offer and not really think twice about it.
Why is it so good to be end-to-end Cisco? Does Cisco really make the best product in all of those categories? I have no idea. But that shows you the power of a brand. It's kind of like when I walk into the Brooks Brothers outlet here in Maine (everything in the store is 50 percent off, people - we're talking $125 suits) and grab socks, pants, boxers, shirts, and ties. Does Brooks Brothers really have the best boxers? Probably not. But it sure is easy to buy everything in one place. Yes, standards are great for offering people the ability to put best-of-breed components in for every part of the system. But do people really want to put best-of-breed components in for every part of the system, or do they just want one reliable manufacturer with a solid brand that can solve all of their problems?
In this case, it looks like the latter.
You can watch a video about the installation here, but leave yourself time for it to load or you'll get frustrated with the latency.
Oh, and did I mention I'm looking for stories about commercial integrators? If you've got anything, send it my way.
Happy New Year!

So I'm changing things up this year. Normally I'm either in New York or on my way there about now...getting ready to celebrate the New Year with a group of college friends (which now includes spouses and kids) whom I've been celebrating with for, oh, well, since "The Big Chill" was a new movie.
It's a tradition to eat a fantastic home-cooked meal, have a dance party with the kids, watch the ball drop and then stay up even later.
This year, work schedules and one family's relo to the West Coast have changed our plans. So I'm working on an IP White Paper story, and I can attest that Gene Pecora of Honeywell Power Products, Morris Stoops of GE Security, Lee Richardson of NFPA and Todd Shearer of SimplexGrinnell are not slacking off on New Year's Eve Day. They're taking my calls and looks like I'll even meet my Jan. 5 deadline, in spite of the fact that everyone else in the industry is not working.
And speaking of not working ... our New Year's Day tradition is to greet the day with Bloody Mary's and this song.
Hope you all have some fun in 2009 too.

As many of you know, one of the big problems faced by everyone involved in selling, installing, monitoring, owning and responding to security systems is false alarms. I produce a regular column for every issue of SSN called False Alarm Ordinance Watch in which various new false alarm ordinances from around the country are highlighted. This morning I came across a column from newsok.com that discussed the new ordinance in Yukon, Okla. It's fun and lighthearted and has a few funny ideas for how to spend your freebie false alarms...
At first I was taken aback, because false alarms are a serious problem that cost taxpayers and communities time, resources and money, and the industry itself, in terms of bad PR. However, the idea of spending your freebie falses, and not wanting to "waste your free false alarms," to quote the column, got me thinking. In tough economic times, maybe responsible security and fire alarm system owners who don't use, or "spend," their own freebie falses should start a market in which they sell their unused freebie credits to those less fortunate... Hmmmm... You know, similar to how companies can buy and sell tax credits, and pollution credits. I think the creation of such a False Alarm Credit Exchange would help reduce the number of false alarms drastically since it would operate on a system of positive reinforcement, rewarding people for operating properly rather than punishing them for operating falsely...
Such a system could even begin to take on characteristics of a real economy with false credits from areas that have a rampant false alarm problem being valued and traded more highly than communities that don't have much of a false alarm problem, thus producing a living and changing false alarm credit exchange rate...
Just an idea... I welcome your comments. Or a piece of the action if you choose to implement this idea ;-)

I learned yesterday that one of my best sourcesÃ¢â‚¬â€an expert on all things fireÃ¢â‚¬â€went and retired on me! ( And before I could talk to him for a story I'm writing this week about IP technology and fire installations. Not happy about this, Nick.)
Guess who? It's Fire-Lite director of marketing Nick Martello. In case any of you can't place the name, here's his photo.
Recognize him now? Probably.
Nick spent 25 years in fire and integrated systems and besides working for the Honeywell Fire Group, he also worked for Kidde Automated Systems, Thorn Automated Systems, Medeco Security Electronics, Medeco Locks and Matrix Systems of Dayton, Ohio.
And here's some stuff you might not know about Nick... He spent 14 years as a public school music teacher (K-12) and was also a middle school principal. He worded at Sea World of Ohio for eight summers, where he found, according to his bio, that he "really liked electronics and went back to get electronics training. I then started my own wireless central station."
After selling out to his partner, he developed intelligent fire systems for Kidde. He then transferred to marketing and worked extensively in the integrated security business including integrated fire, security, access control and CCTV. Next was Medeco Electronics, where he did marketing for SiteKey, an intelligent r/w keying system, and then, full-time consulting for Matrix Systems of Dayton, Ohio. In 1997 he joined Notifier, where he helped develop the Uninet Integration platform and served as marketing director and, finally he took over as Fire-Lite marketing director
My sources at Honeywell say he's going to play golf, but they also say he likes to be busy, so may do some consulting. He's also got a blog to write. Here's the link. I like the tagline, "the online home for all things Martello"
Congratulations and good luck Nick! Security Systems News will miss you!

opefully, no one's wasting time today reading this blog, but I'm just posting a quick message to say I'll be on vacation through Jan. 5, and you shouldn't expect a post before then unless something truly monumental happens (or I get really bored with the family - not impossible).
Enjoy some time off and your families, and I'll talk to you again in the new year.

Daniel Gelinas
Raymond, ME, United StatesI am a journalist who enjoys writing short science fiction and literary fiction. I also enjoy reading, acting and spending time with my son. I began my editing career as an intern at children's book publisher Charlesbridge Publishing in Watertown, Mass. From there I moved into trade publications at Nielsen Media in Boston, working as a newswire editor at Nielsen's Entertainment News Wire. And no, even though I worked in entertainment journalism, I've never met anyone more famous than the guy doing backstage security at a Tori Amos concert. I now cover the Monitoring beat at SSN.
Please feel free to email me with comments.

With a background in mainstream journalism, Sam has now headed Security Systems News for the past four years, and is a programmer of TechSec Solutions, a conference that explores the impact of IP technology on the security industry.
He's married, has two children, and doesn't bother to lock his doors up here in Maine. But, shhhhh, don't tell anyone.